He tilted his head. “May I?”
I shrugged. “It’s your place.” I sighed. “Actually, no. How the heck did you know I’d be here?”
He paused mid-step over the threshold. “Because I come here to think too.”
I frowned. “You’re the one who’s been staying here?”
His eyebrow rose. “Just how often do you come here, Alison?”
“Not often. It’s been months, actually, before the past few days. I didn’t think anyone came here, but the sheets in the bedroom were far too fresh.”
Oliver let out a frustrated sigh and tugged at his tie. “Yes, well sometimes one needs the simple and the quiet to think. May I come in?”
He owned the place, and he was asking me for permission. Unusually sweet for Oliver, but I needed some kindness right now. Desperately.
“Depends. Are you friend or foe?”
“I hope friend.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen Oliver show an emotion other than disdain or disinterest. Especially toward me. “Why?”
“Fair question. I believe we may have gotten off on the wrong foot.”
“For thirteen years? I think that would be an understatement.”
He dipped his hands into his pockets. “The Hamilton men aren’t known for their grace with the fairer sex.”
“Maybe you and your father, but I’m pretty sure Seth got the brunt of your share.”
“Probably true.”
And yet Oliver is the one who found me, not his brother. Did Seth even notice I’d been missing? And now I was just being melodramatic. Seth had been texting me a few times a day every day.
I’d told him I needed a little thinking time.
I slid my hand over my belly self-consciously and sat forward, hunching my shoulders. I was already going into protective mode for a child that may or may not even exist. “Is Seth with you?”
“No.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good.”
“Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to see my brother?”
“No.” I shoved my keys and pepper spray back into my bag. “Yes.” I stood and crossed to the windows of the screened-in porch, hoping for a breeze off the water. It had helped earlier, but my mom wasn’t talking now.
The vast, mirror-like lake shone and in the distance. Now I could see the white string lights around the gazebo. Night was creeping over the town and the sun was sinking behind the trees with fantastic red and pink slashes across the sky. Music and laughter traveled with the occasional snatches of breeze on the heavy night. The pier and park was all tricked out already for the reunion. It was time to celebrate the ten years of our lives we’d put behind us.
Ten years I’d spent not moving forward.
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know. That would be why I’m here. I don’t know anything.”
“Not surprising since my brother is the king of cowards.”
“What?” I turned back to Oliver. “No, he’s not. He—”
“No, that’s exactly what he is. Both of you are. There’s a reason no one ever fit either of you over the years. I may not want to tie myself to one woman, but Seth has been a family man since the moment that little girl was put into his arms. I just put the wrong woman in his path.”